Not only is that big Senate Race shaping up but this yet again shows the trend of the mountain west becoming America's new battle ground. Colorado is another one of those purple states that has barely broke Republican in the last two elections; 8% in ’00, and 4.6% in ’04. With those numbers, and the fact they elected Democratic Senator Ken Salazar in 2004, Colorado could be trending Democratic. Picking up those 8 electoral votes would be big. The strategic reasons for Denver are much of the reason many of the bloggers over at Kos were pulling for Denver.